New Jersey Devils made another important step in their rebuild on Thursday. The team announced that they have hired Lindy Ruff as their head coach while installing Tom Fitzgerald as the permanent general manager.
Ruff comes to New Jersey following a stint as an assistant with the New York Rangers. He previously served as head coach of Dallas Stars and Buffalo Sabres and has a 736-554-125 career record.
Devils needed a coach after they fired John Hynes in early December. Assistant Alain Nasreddine led the team on an interim basis since then, finishing the regular season with 19-16-8 record.
Fitzgerald previously served as Director of Player Development with Pittsburgh Penguins before taking over the assistant general manager role with Devils in 2015. He stepped in as interim GM back in January after Ray Shero got fired.
“It was evident that Tom was the right person for this job,” said Devils’ co-owner David Blitzer in a statement. “We’re very excited to remove that interim tag.”
New Jersey Devils now hope that Ruff and Fitzgerald will help turn around a team that has one of NHL’s youngest rosters. Since playing in Stanley Cup finals in 2012, Devils haven’t been competitive in NHL and only managed to make playoffs once in seven seasons. They finished the 2019/20 14th in the Eastern Conference with 28-29-12 overall record.
